Daniele Federici
Le Canzoni di Lou Reed

An indispensable book for anyone who wants to delve deeper into or approach for the first time the poetics of Lou Reed.

Daniele Federici is one of the leading supporters of Reed's work; he founded the Italian site dedicated to him, collaborates with his fan club, and has written for the Italian site of David Bowie. 

Structured in different chapters, each corresponding to a studio album, this work offers an excellent insight into Lou Reed's artistic life itself, thanks also to introductions and historical notes. The song lyrics are analyzed individually with interesting comments; they are, of course, not fully translated, but Federici has a good gift for summarization.

It reaches up to the album "The Raven", from 2003, although only brief mentions are made of it.

The title is: "Le canzoni di Lou Reed - Commento e traduzione dei testi". Editori Riuniti. Series "Pensieri e Parole".

I personally devoured it and occasionally revisit it, using it as a "manual" to shed light on lyrics I've forgotten or am not very familiar with...